Engilsh Toffee Success

I tried the toffee again (refer to previous post), this time cooking it to 300°. Oh, what a great move! The butter flavor was so great, very "browned". The texture was also better. A nice crushy crunch. This time I used milk chocolate, which usually isn't my favorite, but I think it's the right thing here. I had the full amount of almonds this time. After toasting them all, I chopped  a few, maybe 1/4 cup. I put the whole slivers on the bottom, poured the toffee over them, spread the chocolate on top, and sprinkled with chopped almonds while still soft. I don't know if the chocolate bloomed this time, it wasn't around long enough to find out. :)

Update: I made it again with Nestle's semi-sweet chips, and preferred that to the milk chocolate. It's so good, though, the chocolate is really more of a personal preference. White chocolate would probably work too.

Apple Strudel today

I made an apple strudel again today, and couldn't resist changing it. I used softened rather than melted butter, and dark brown sugar for white sugar, in the filling. This is more like the cinnamon roll recipe. For the apples, I used all Honey Crisp. The apples alone weren't that outstanding, but the flavor was great in the strudel. However, I should have warmed them first.

I also should have wrapped up the sides and ends better, to hold in the filling...

When I checked on the strudel in the oven, the filling was oozing out badly, and was almost onto the stone. I pulled it out, put it on a baking sheet, and put it back in. This, on top of using cold apples, disrupted the baking time, and I ended up calling it done too soon. The filling didn't set up all the way, and there were undercooked places in the dough.

Sounds like a real disaster, but, my family still loved the gooey, cinnamon-apple-bread-mapley-icing result. Success! :) And room for improvement. ;)

Scandinavian Cardamom Braid

 This is such a good, exotic bread, I'm not sure why I don't make it more often.  Cardamom is the second most expensive spice, after saffron and before vanilla bean. Happily it is also super strong, so you don't need much. The almonds toast on top while the bread bakes, and then a drizzle of buttery orange glaze... 

This is a holiday bread, and I usually only make it in December. It can be a real show-stopper at the office "goodies" table, or at a party. I usually have to cut the first slice myself, because no one wants to mess it up. I serve the glaze in a bowl on the side, for two reasons: 1. If there is any bread left over, it will keep better, and 2. Everyone gets to decide how much they want to drizzle on their serving.

 I just made it as a 6-strand braid, and it was beautiful that way also.

LAL's Cinnamon Rolls

Quest for the Ultimate Cinnamon Roll: Completed!

A friend and I have discussed cinnamon rolls for months now. In fact, more like a couple of years. Here is the current revision of the recipe.

What we talk about really is how amazing TJ Cinnamons® cinnamon rolls were, and how sad it is that you can no longer get them. We alternated trying recipes. We tried Alton Brown. Tried an old recipe I had saved long ago. Tried one from the Bread Baker's Apprentice. Tried the filling from King Arthur Flour. I've lost track of all the recipes we tried. They mostly make good cinnamon rolls, and our family and friends enjoyed eating them. But, somehow, they always missed the mark. I started to doubt my memory of the amazing rolls, now lost to a fast-food chain, and modified beyond recognition. Googling for TJ Cinnamons® turned up dozens of copies of the same recipe that, just from reading it, I knew by now was not worth trying. So I looked instead for old recipes, and found one called "Mom’s Cinnamon Rolls" by Amy on October 11, 2009.

Finally, this sounded about right.